It is, therefore, not unfair to assume that the manipulation of vegetable fibres, such as leaves, rushes, straws and other similar products, was really the earliest textile operation. That once conceded, it is no long step to the use of the “plaitted” article as a head covering.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, in its articles on “Costume” and “Hats” states that the “modern hat can be traced back to the Petasus worn by the ancient Romans when on a journey”; and similar hats, known as Kausia, were also used by the ancient Greeks on like occasions.
The Greek Kausia and the Roman Petasus are described as “hats of a pliant material which could be bent down at the sides like that worn by Atalanta.”
La Croix, a French writer on the subject, assures us that the early Romans and Franks “sought Bast and Straw of which to make them hats,” and there is an antique statue of Mercury in the Vatican at Rome, which has for head covering a hat of a “wide-awake” nature, sculptured in close imitation of a finely plaitted straw.
The Goddess Hera (the Grecian name for the Roman Juno), Queen of Olympus, is depicted on ancient vases, coins and statues wearing a Stephanos [one of the statues, the original of which was by Praxiteles (350 B.C.), representing Hera Teleia standing, is known to moderns by copies to be found in the Vatican and other museums]. Pausanias (c. 160 B.C.) speaking of the coins of Argos, specifically describes Hera as wearing a Stephanos. This was a head covering consisting only of a crown, similar in shape to a modern Turkish fez inverted, of the same breadth and height all round, and was made of various vegetable products.
Fig. 2
STEPHANOS, FROM TERRA-COTTA (700 B.C.), BRITISH MUSEUM
In the British Museum is to be seen a small terra-cotta figure seated wearing the above sketched Stephanos in which the plaitting marks of coarse vegetable fibres are very distinct. This is probably the earliest extant record, in the plastic art, of a straw hat.
“Wicker work (poloi kalathoi) was also used by the ancient Greeks to make brim-less hats.” (Gerard. Antike Bildwerke.)
The ancient Etruscans wore what was known as a Tutulus, a brimless hat with a high pointed centre to the crown; and a broad brimmed hat similar to the Petasus, but with a pointed top like the Tutulus.